Police investigating Monday’s shooting death of a Denver Broncos player are searching for a sports-utility vehicle registered to Brian Kenneth Hicks, a veteran criminal and gang member in jail on attempted-murder and drug charges.

Officers are trying to find a 1998 white Chevrolet Tahoe registered to Hicks in connection with the killing of cornerback Darrent Williams, police sources say. The vehicle has Colorado license plate 665-OBS.

And while Hicks was behind bars at the time of Williams’ death, detectives want to know who was using his car early New Year’s Day. That’s when Williams was killed as gunshots were fired from a white SUV that pulled alongside his stretch limousine after a nightclub party.

Hicks, 27, is awaiting trial on charges he tried to kill two women outside a nightclub in 2005.

Kalonniann Clark, one of the women wounded outside the nightclub on Ninth Avenue and Acoma Street, was killed on Dec. 6, just days before she was set to testify against Hicks.

Hicks was in custody when Clark was killed, as well as at the time of Williams’ death.

Denver police dispatchers on Wednesday urged officers to use caution if they encountered the Tahoe.

Hicks declined to be interviewed by The Denver Post. He was moved to an isolated jail cell Wednesday, said Denver Sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gale.

Williams, 24, was gunned down after leaving the Shelter nightclub at 1037 Broadway with a large group of friends. Several Broncos and Denver Nuggets players were sponsoring a party at the club to celebrate the new year and Nuggets player Kenyon Martin’s birthday.

Several witnesses and Williams’ family members say that an argument broke out between two groups of men as Williams was leaving the club. A short time later, he was shot in the neck as he rode in the stretch Hummer limo at 11th Avenue and Speer Boulevard, several blocks away.

Two other people in the Hummer, Nicole Reindl, 21, and Brandon Flowers, were wounded. Reindl was sent home with a bullet in her head on Tuesday. Flowers was released from the hospital hours after the shooting.

The Rev. Leon Kelly, who helps Denver teens escape gangs and drugs, said he heard that Williams was with members of the Bloods street gang on New Year’s Eve and that they had a conflict outside the Shelter with members of the Crips.

“In the gang world, respect is a major issue,” Kelly said. “Someone may have felt disrespected. The shooting wasn’t random.”

Kelly said he knew Hicks to be affiliated with the Crips, as did another source familiar with the case.

Family members have repeatedly denied that Williams was involved in gangs. But Williams didn’t need to have gang ties to be in danger, Kelly said. “People die over being around someone who does. I bury kids who were just with somebody,” he said.

“I don’t justify what happened but I can understand the logic behind it; to just light up a vehicle like that without knowing where someone was sitting,” Kelly said. “A lot of these guys don’t take target practice.”

Everyone in the Hummer became a target when someone climbed inside after angering a gang member, he said.

Williams’ mother, Rosalind, denied that her son had anything to do with gangs.

“That has nothing to do with Darrent,” she told 9News. “Darrent is not affiliated, nor has been affiliated, with any group that supports violence. I didn’t expect for them to find a car with a citizen that goes to work everyday from 9 to 5, OK?”

Rosalind Williams also said she doesn’t believe anyone in her son’s group was involved with gangs.

“It’s not correct information that the fight that night was gang related with anyone from Darrent’s group,” she said. “I heard that there was an altercation at the club in which Darrent was not involved. He happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said investigators have not established a gang dispute as a motive for the killing, nor would he verify whether police are targeting Hicks in their probe.

Demond Williams, Darrent Williams’ uncle, said police officials updated the Broncos Wednesday at the conclusion of a private memorial.

“We are hopeful the police will get these people off the streets,” he said.

Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the shooter.

“I urge anyone who knows anything to let the police, let the organization know,” Broncos safety Nick Ferguson said. “We need to get justice. We need this young man to rest in peace.”

Hicks is in jail on a $550,000 bond in a Nov. 9 case in which he was charged with intent to distribute a duffel bag filled with 8.8 pounds of cocaine. He is also being held on $500,000 bond in the attempted-murder case.

Since Clark’s death, Hicks’ attempted-murder trial has been postponed. No suspects have been arrested in Clark’s death.

Hicks’ wife, Kimaya James, 26, was arrested two days before Clark was killed on allegations she threatened Clark if she testified against Hicks.

Hicks also has a violent history with police officers, according to 1997 court records that say he aimed a revolver at Denver officers Robert Wyckoff and Dennis Bedenbender.

For that offense, Hicks was convicted of two counts of felony menacing and one count of carrying a concealed weapon. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

Community activist Alvertis Simmons has organized a candlelight vigil for Williams to start at 4:30 p.m. Friday at 10th Avenue and Broadway, concluding at 11th and Speer, the site of the shooting.

“We want everyone there,” Simmons said. “This is not a color thing. It’s a people thing, a human rights thing. We want this type of violence to stop and we want the people responsible caught.”

Another candlelight vigil organized by fans is set for 2:15 p.m. Saturday at Invesco Field at Mile High, at the south stands entrance below the horse waterfall.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.

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